Tag: Vice Media

Vice Media partners with A+ E Networks to launch own cable TV channel Viceland

MUMBAI: Vice Media is all set to launch its cable TV channel in partnership with A+E Networks. With this move, Vice will become the first digital media company to have its own cable TV channel. The new channel, Viceland will go live from 14 March 2016. Catering to a younger audience, the channel aims at reinventing traditional TV ad model and has rostered majority advertisers.

The channel will carry only about half of the 18 minutes of ads that most cable networks air in an hour of programming. Advertisers on board are Unilever PLC, Bank of America Corp., Smirnoff maker Diageo PLC, watch and apparel maker Shinola, Bushmills whiskey, Mailchimp, Samsung Electronics Co., T-Mobile US Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.

Within six months’, Viceland wants roughly half its advertising inventory to be made up of native ads packaged to look like editorial content and keep audiences from tuning out. These spots will frequently be longer than a typical 30-second ad and will be tailored specifically for the network.

Talking about the new launch, Viceland co-president and Vice chief creative officer Eddy Moretti informed the Wall Street Journal, “We are trying to displace the clutter by injecting some humanity and authenticity.” He further added, “If we create a user experience that is more engaging than what else is on the dial, people won’t flip.”

Vice, which was valued at nearly $4.5 billion last year in a recent funding round, isn’t alone in identifying that the barrage of traditional ads that appear on most cable channels are a turnoff for viewers, particularly younger ones who have grown up with Netflix, DVRs and ad-blocking software.

This is Vice’s second foray into content, when Vice Media had made its first foray into basic cable nearly a decade ago, with programming on MTV2, but its scrappy documentaries sent advertisers fleeing.

March 9, 2016
Vice Media partners with A+ E Networks to launch own cable TV channel Viceland

MUMBAI: Vice Media is all set to launch its cable TV channel in partnership with A+E Networks. With this move, Vice will become the first digital media company to have its own cable TV channel. The new channel, Viceland will go live from 14 March 2016. Catering to a younger audience, the channel aims at reinventing traditional TV ad model and has rostered majority advertisers.

The channel will carry only about half of the 18 minutes of ads that most cable networks air in an hour of programming. Advertisers on board are Unilever PLC, Bank of America Corp., Smirnoff maker Diageo PLC, watch and apparel maker Shinola, Bushmills whiskey, Mailchimp, Samsung Electronics Co., T-Mobile US Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.

Within six months’, Viceland wants roughly half its advertising inventory to be made up of native ads packaged to look like editorial content and keep audiences from tuning out. These spots will frequently be longer than a typical 30-second ad and will be tailored specifically for the network.

Talking about the new launch, Viceland co-president and Vice chief creative officer Eddy Moretti informed the Wall Street Journal, “We are trying to displace the clutter by injecting some humanity and authenticity.” He further added, “If we create a user experience that is more engaging than what else is on the dial, people won’t flip.”

Vice, which was valued at nearly $4.5 billion last year in a recent funding round, isn’t alone in identifying that the barrage of traditional ads that appear on most cable channels are a turnoff for viewers, particularly younger ones who have grown up with Netflix, DVRs and ad-blocking software.

This is Vice’s second foray into content, when Vice Media had made its first foray into basic cable nearly a decade ago, with programming on MTV2, but its scrappy documentaries sent advertisers fleeing.

March 9, 2016
Imagine Entertainment secures investment from Raine Group

MUMBAI: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment has received a significant investment from global merchant bank The Raine Group.

Over the past three decades, Hollywood production company Imagine has created culture-defining stories in film and television. With Raine’s investment, Imagine will further expand its creative footprint, working with content creators across the entertainment spectrum and exploring new ways to integrate storytelling and technology.

“The ways in which content is created and consumed are transforming faster than ever before, expanding in directions that hadn’t been conceived even a few years ago. The opportunity to extend Imagine’s reach across this expanding landscape is a driving force for us. Through this partnership, we are incredibly excited to roll out a slate of new projects that capture the imagination and visions we share on a global scale,” said Grazer.

Raine’s investment will provide Imagine with the backing to continue its strong growth trajectory under the leadership of Grazer and Howard, enabling the company to invest in content directly with other artists. In addition to television and film production, Imagine will continue to expand into new areas such as branded content, location based entertainment and digital formats, taking advantage of new technologies and forms of distribution. The company expects to explore both organic growth opportunities as well as potential acquisitions.

Howard added, “We are proud of the legacy we have built with Imagine and are more excited than ever to build on it by tapping into our creative, experimental and entrepreneurial DNA to ignite new passion projects. This investment and partnership unlocks new doors for us as creators and for the company and its expansionary endeavours. It allows us to build upon our creative relationships to broaden our reach into all narrative formats and platforms. We appreciate Raine’s support and welcome them to the Imagine family.”

Previously Raine has invested in companies like Vice Media, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Important Studios, action sports company Nitro Circus and fantasy sports operator Draft Kings. Additional strategic co-investors brought in by Raine include China Media Capital, the Antenna Group and WPP.

“We have long admired Ron, Brian and their team as master storytellers. We are excited to invest in and partner with Imagine as they expand their many successful franchises across new mediums,” said Raine entertainment practice head Erik Hodge.

“We have built our business on the principle that content and creators are the most valuable elements in today’s media ecosystem. Imagine’s well-established reputation as a talent-friendly creative partner was incredibly important to us, and we look forward to helping them grow their business and continue to tell amazing stories and astonish and delight global audiences as they continue in this tradition,” added Raine co-founder Joe Ravitch.

In connection with the transaction, both Hodge and Ravitch will join Imagine’s board.

February 9, 2016
Imagine Entertainment secures investment from Raine Group

MUMBAI: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment has received a significant investment from global merchant bank The Raine Group.

Over the past three decades, Hollywood production company Imagine has created culture-defining stories in film and television. With Raine’s investment, Imagine will further expand its creative footprint, working with content creators across the entertainment spectrum and exploring new ways to integrate storytelling and technology.

“The ways in which content is created and consumed are transforming faster than ever before, expanding in directions that hadn’t been conceived even a few years ago. The opportunity to extend Imagine’s reach across this expanding landscape is a driving force for us. Through this partnership, we are incredibly excited to roll out a slate of new projects that capture the imagination and visions we share on a global scale,” said Grazer.

Raine’s investment will provide Imagine with the backing to continue its strong growth trajectory under the leadership of Grazer and Howard, enabling the company to invest in content directly with other artists. In addition to television and film production, Imagine will continue to expand into new areas such as branded content, location based entertainment and digital formats, taking advantage of new technologies and forms of distribution. The company expects to explore both organic growth opportunities as well as potential acquisitions.

Howard added, “We are proud of the legacy we have built with Imagine and are more excited than ever to build on it by tapping into our creative, experimental and entrepreneurial DNA to ignite new passion projects. This investment and partnership unlocks new doors for us as creators and for the company and its expansionary endeavours. It allows us to build upon our creative relationships to broaden our reach into all narrative formats and platforms. We appreciate Raine’s support and welcome them to the Imagine family.”

Previously Raine has invested in companies like Vice Media, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Important Studios, action sports company Nitro Circus and fantasy sports operator Draft Kings. Additional strategic co-investors brought in by Raine include China Media Capital, the Antenna Group and WPP.

“We have long admired Ron, Brian and their team as master storytellers. We are excited to invest in and partner with Imagine as they expand their many successful franchises across new mediums,” said Raine entertainment practice head Erik Hodge.

“We have built our business on the principle that content and creators are the most valuable elements in today’s media ecosystem. Imagine’s well-established reputation as a talent-friendly creative partner was incredibly important to us, and we look forward to helping them grow their business and continue to tell amazing stories and astonish and delight global audiences as they continue in this tradition,” added Raine co-founder Joe Ravitch.

In connection with the transaction, both Hodge and Ravitch will join Imagine’s board.

February 9, 2016
Vice Media sells 10% stake to A+E Networks

MUMBAI: Shortly after media reports about Time Warner ending talks to buy a stake in Vice Media flashed, Financial Times reported that Vice is wrapping up a deal to sell a 10 per cent stake to A+E Networks, the cable television group jointly owned by Walt Disney and Hearst Corporation for $250 million.

According to the report, the sale could be announced as early as next week. This deal puts the entire company’s market value at $2.5 billion which represents a steep increase in Vice’s valuation since last year. The company, last year, sold a 5 per cent stake to Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox for $70 million, valuing the company at $1.4 billion then.

Talking to the Financial Times, Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith said, “It’s a great deal for us, it means we can preserve our independence and it gives us a war chest for another three years of dramatic growth.”

Smith also added that Vice is exploring the possibility of having its own channel, for the moment it will be producing programming for the network, which runs shows such as Duck Dynasty and Storage Wars.

Vice operates a global network of online channels covering news, sport, technology and music. The company currently has 25 offices across six continents, while its YouTube channel has around 4 million subscribers and over 500 million views.

According to reports, while Vice will produce digital and cable programming for A+E as part of the deal, it will not currently take over running any of its cable channels.

Until recently, Time Warner was in acquisition talks with Vice about buying a 40 per cent stake in the company. The deal would have reportedly valued the company at about $2 billion. But talks stalled due to disputes over Vice’s valuation, The New York Times reported.

Founded in 1994, Vice started out as a Montreal music and youth culture magazine but has since expanded into web content, making a splash with its myriad documentary videos on YouTube. It also has a television series on HBO. Vice’s free magazine is printed in 28 countries.

August 30, 2014
Vice Media, Shane Smith & Star India

CANNES: Shane Smith is your typical journalist. He dresses in jeans and a T-shirt, even when he is delivering a keynote at the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes during the currently ongoing MipTV. But Smith also heads a company Vice Media which is believed to be the next big thing to news TV journalism just as CNN was in its early days.

Vice has a valuation of $1.4 billion courtesy a multimillion dollar investment in his company by global media baron Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty First Century Fox which gave the latter a 5 per cent equity stake. Vice Media has its web site vice.com, its youtube channels, a magazine, a show on HBO, among many other initiatives.

During the course of an interview Smith was quite clear why he agreed to the Fox deal.

Said he: “It is impossible to become an international media brand on your own. There’s carriage issues, there’s legal issues, there’s a myriad of other things. if you look at ESPN, CNN and MTV, ESPN sold out to Disney, CNN to Time Warner, and MTV Viacom. We wanted to stay independent. Fox gave us the entrée into India with Star, entrée into Europe with Sky, film with Twentieth Century Fox. They helped us to get into all those territories. Yet at the same time it is a sub five per cent investment. We own the company, we run the company, 80 per cent of it, and I own 95 per cent of the board. It’s a way of staying independent, yet becoming that fifth media brand.”

Smith stated that CNN, ESPN and MTV belong to another era – they were the benchmarks of the cable TV revolution. And they are not the business role models for today. “In the world of online, if you look at some of the numbers, if you look at what we can do internationally and how you can reach people. You know I am not going to be the next CNN. I am not going to be the next ESPN. I am not going to be the next MTV. I am going to be 10X CNN, 10X MTV and 10X ESPN,” he opined quite confidently. ”Because the numbers now in terms of the video views are now in the billions. That’s the disruption, that’s the revolution.”

Smith was in Cannes to launch his online food channel joint venture with Fremantle Media called Munchies. The channel is slated to have more than 100 hours of short form clips, half hour shows and hour long shows. Targeted at Gen Y, Smith expects munchies.tv to generate hundreds of millions of views this year from the current 50 million views its food shows on You tube generate. Munchies’ initial slate of shows includes Fresh Off The Boat, Being Frank, Girl Eats Food, Chef’s Night Out and F*ck, That’s Delicious

The goateed journo turned media-preneur is quite sanguine that his company will do revenues of about $500 million by end 2014, almost three times its 2012 revenues of $170 million. And he is quite clear he will continue wearing both his journalist and CEO hats. Said he: “I think you if you want to make cars, you better love cars. You want to make shoes, you better love shoes. I love content. I am a content company. A, I am not going to send a reporter somewhere where I am not going to go myself. B, I have to know every piece of content, that is to be made. How do we shoot it, how doe we edit it, how do we put it out, how do we activate it. Otherwise I should not be running a content company. And since we are a content company, that’s what I do. And the other half of it is, try to make that work, trying to grow audience, try to make money.”

With an audience in excess of 15-20 million worldwide, and several language editions, Vice Media might well get there.

April 8, 2014